1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to an automated management system for managing data, outage repair, load switching, job workflow and crew dispatching, crew workflow, installation, maintenance and restoration of utility services by integrating geographic information systems (GIS) data with many other data sources so as to gather, transform, manipulate, analyze, and produce desired information for continuously supplying utility and relevant services. The data sources include customer information systems (CIS) and billing data, interactive voice recognition (IVR) call management data, supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), mobile crew management (MCM) data, automatic meter reading (AMR) data, automated vehicle location (AVL) data, engineering analysis data supported by 3rd party software packages (such as load monitoring and balancing), etc. In particular, the system allows an on-site engineer to retrieve data (ex. field maps, work orders, codes) or enter, via a portable device, inspection data (ex. such as poles or underground facilities, code violations).
2. Description of the Related Art
Electric utilities companies improve their operations by implementing an Outage Management System (OMS) which has been developed with interfaces with SCADA, automatic meter reading systems (AMR), utility call centers, Customer Information Systems (CIS), and AM/FM/GIS systems to reduce the average outage restoration.
Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) is a computer system for gathering and analyzing real time data. SCADA systems are used to monitor and control a plant or equipment in industries such as telecommunications, water and waste control, energy, oil and gas refining and transportation. A SCADA system gathers information, such as where a leak or break-down on a pipeline has occurred, transfers the information back to a central site, alerting the home station that the leak has occurred, carrying out necessary analysis and control, such as determining if the leak is critical, and displaying the information in a logical and organized fashion. SCADA systems can be relatively simple, such as one that monitors environmental conditions of a small office building, or incredibly complex, such as a system that monitors all the activity in a nuclear power plant or the activity of a municipal water system.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data play an important role in many operations, such as police and fire resources, phone, utilities, gas, cable TV, water, sewer installation and maintenance, to locate landmarks and hazards, plot destinations, and design emergency routes, etc. GIS has been integrated into automated mapping/facilities management (AM/FM) systems in many OMS systems.
Interactive voice response (IVR) is a telephony technology in which someone uses a touch-tone telephone to interact with a database to acquire information from or enter data into the database.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,259,972 shows a method for processing and disseminating utility outage information with response to the receipt of new data in the form of events. The outage data is mapped into a geographic information system and transmitted as selected by a subscriber by events, such as De-energized areas, Trouble calls, De-energized premise reported by automated meter reading (AMR) or by intelligent electronic device (IED), Work crew relocation reported, Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) device operation reported, Work crew status change reported, Manual switch operation, Warning tagging (to notify others that work is being performed) reported, Grounding of the power line reported. It also offers customer services, such as Outage Alert and/or Outage Watch services. However, Pat'972 is directed toward a publisher/subscriber model with event driven updates, rather than providing the described functionality via direct server queries and merged updates to autonomous clients. In addition, Pat'972 lacks of sufficient teachings for implementing all these event reporting functions. For example, it merely mentions a “Query” menu 716, which allows tracing customer/power line/transformer upstream/downstream, displaying transformers downstream/trouble calls/outages/crews/device/line/facility/circuit-/GIS object, without providing implementation details. One of skill in the art would not be able to implement all the described functions based upon the disclosure of Pat'972. Another drawback of Pat'972 is its limited functionality. For example, a “Crew” menu only accepts commands for updating information pertaining to work crews, but not a full crew dispatching managing process to increase the effectiveness of outage restoration personnel.
An article by Steve Kearney titled “Outage management systems can improve customer service” published in 1999 http://www.gisdevelopment.net/proceedings/-gita/1999/os/os050.shtml, further suggests using OMS technology to improve customer service, such as Integrated Voice Response (IVR) messages to notify customers of an outage at a remote site. In particular, the system funnels data from all sources—Call Center, Crews, Dispatch, SCADA, AMR, IEDs—and establishes a common database (or “Information Bus”) to push appropriate data back to the users is the main objective of the OMS. This allows the utility company to link CIS, with meter systems, Facilities and Work Management Systems, SCADA, Engineering Analysis, and AM/FM/GIS mapping systems to provide better informational exchange. The data is then compiles and sent to Call Centers, the dispatching personnel, crews, and/or Emergency Operations Centers, and then to the customers and News Media. However, the article lacks of sufficient teachings for implementing all these claimed functions, such as the interfaces for importing the various data. Neither does the article describe the deployment and mechanisms to update the OMS. In addition, its functionality does not include modification of the underlying model, such as switching and “what-if” scenarios or actual edits of underlying data, since it is based on a static model of the system.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 5,568,399 provides a method and apparatus for determining the probable location of a fault causing a power outage in a power distribution system based on a power distribution grid. Using “fuzzy set” theory, the possibility that each protective device operated is calculated. The cumulative possibility that each protective device operated is then calculated by summing the possibilities associated with un-flagged reports for each protective device. This cumulative possibility is compared to a predetermined confidence threshold associated with each protective device. If the cumulative possibility that a given protective device operated is greater than the confidence threshold, a conclusion is reached that the protective device operated, and all reports that led to that conclusion are flagged so as not to contribute to future outage determinations. If the conclusion is subsequently rejected, the reports that led to the rejected conclusion are un-flagged so as to contribute to future outage determinations. However, it predicts with lengthy upstream network tracing.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2002/0087220 shows a system and method to provide maintenance for an electrical power generation, transmission and distribution system with maintenance personnel visiting a site to inspect a condition of said apparatus, and examine information from an Information System operated in co-ordination with a Help Desk. The system does not incorporate GIS date and does not concern crew workflow and dispatching to different locations.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2002/0198627 shows a predictive failure for semiconductor processing applications by presently monitoring operating parameters of the power delivery system in order to predict maintenance requirements and to avoid power delivery system failure. It involves a specifically-located semiconductor processing facility/equipment, rather than a group of geographically-spread facilities/equipment which may be associated with GIS date. It neither concerns any crew workflow and dispatching to different geographic locations of the facilities/equipment.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2003/0028351 applies empiric numeric modeling in science, medicine, meteorology, sociology, disease control, manufacturing and other areas, including utility service. In the aspect, the system predicts customer demand in order to optimize power grid operations, to predict equipment failures or power outage so that appropriate equipment maintenance and replacement can be undertaken timely. The application mentions that data can be collected and input with the aid of geographical positioning systems (“GPS”) or global information systems (“GIS”). However, the disclosure does not specifically apply GIS to utility outage, neither does it discuss any concern regarding crew workflow and dispatching to different locations.
AVL (Automated Vehicle Location) technologies were designed to locate vehicles for fleet management purposes and for stolen vehicle recovery, which infrastructure can be land-based radio towers or satellites. However, AVL has not yet been applied in utility management.
There are many other patents and articles are oriented toward the OMS/Dispatch or other aspects of utility's operation management.
Currently, there is a demand for a fully integrate utility management system to realize the benefits of GIS technology and existing software systems including CIS (Customer Information System) and Billing data, WMS (Work Management System), IVR (Interactive Voice Recognition) call management, SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), MCM (Mobile Crew Management), AVL (Automated Vehicle Location), AMR (Automatic Meter Reading), Engineering planning packages, etc, i.e., all aspects of a utility's operation management in a seamless application set.